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COIN  HOARDS 

By  SYDNEY  P.  NOE 


THE  AMERICAN  NUMISMATIC  SOCIETY 
BROADWAY  AT  156th  STREET 
NEW  YORK 
1920 


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NUMISMATIC 

NOTES  & MONOGRAPHS 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2016  with  funding  from 
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The  Sacking  of  a City,  from  a Burgundian  Tapestry. 


COIN  HOARDS 


BY 

SYDNEY  P.  NOE 

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The  Library 

M°Unt  Holyoke  Cc 


THE  AMERICAN  NUMISMATIC  SOCIETY 
BROADWAY  AT  156th  STREET 
NEW  YORK 
1920 


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ch 


COPYRIGHT  1920  BY 

THE  AMERICAN  NUMISMATIC  SOCIETY 


Press  of  T.  R.  Marvin  & Son,  Boston 


fHE  GETTY  CENTER 
LIBRARY 


COIN  HOARDS 

i 

COIN  HOARDS 

By  Sydney  P.  Noe 

There  is  no  branch  of  numismatics 
which  would  have  a greater  appeal  to 
the  average  man  than  the  study  of  hoards 
and  treasure  trove.  To  some  it  will 
cause  surprise  that  such  material  should 
need  study.  Not  so  to  the  archaeologist 
or  the  historian,  who  often  has  had  reason 
to  be  grateful  for  the  data  supplied  by 
coin  finds.  The  presentation  of  some  of 
the  causes  of  hoarding  and  of  the\  deduc- 
tions we  may  draw  from  recovered  buried 
treasure  is  submitted  that  the  value  of 
some  of  these  results  may  be  made  clearer. 

We  Americans,  probably  because  we  are 
without  many  opportunities  of  such  a 
nature  this  side  of  the  water,  find  this 
subject  of  especial  interest.  To  be  sure, 
the  treasuries  of  the  Incas  of  Peru  which 

! 

1 

NUMISMATIC  NOTES 

2 

COIN  HOARDS 

have  been  unearthed  included  the  precious  | 
metals  in  many  forms  but  nothing  that! 
has  been  identified  as  currency.  The 
tumuli  of  the  Maya  and  Aztec  civiliza- 
tions of  Central  America  will  some  day 
yield  rich  returns  to  the  investigator,  but 
the  material  heretofore  secured  is  archaeo- 
logical or  ethnological,  and,  like  that  of 
Peru,  has  included  little  of  a numismatic 
nature.  In  both  cases,  the  finds  are  more 
closely  analogous  to  those  of  ancient 
Egypt  where  the  accounts  often  prove 
more  thrilling  than  fiction.  It  stimulates 
the  imagination  to  read  of  unrifled  tombs 
where  lie  haughty  princesses  of  long  ago. 
Their  jewels  and  the  implements  of  their 
daily  life  were  placed  near  at  hand  in 
readiness  for  the  after-world,  but  food  and 
drink  were  considered  more  necessary 
than  gold.  Only  with  the  burials  of  the 
later  and  least  interesting  period  does 
numismatic  material  occur.  This  is  owing 
to  the  fact  that  the  early  money  of  the 
Egyptians  consisted  of  bullion  in  an  un- 
minted form  whose  exchange  value  was 
determined  by  weight.  During  the  Per-j 

NUMISMATIC  NOTES 

COIN  HOARDS 

3 

sian  domination,  the  darics  and  sigloi  of 
the  invaders  seem  to  have  been  in  use  to 
a limited  degree,  but  finds  show  also  that 
the  early  coinage  of  the  Greeks  circulated 
to  a much  more  considerable  extent. 

Although  finds  of  coin  do  not  occur  in 
this  country  as  frequently  as  in  Europe, 
one  of  the  basic  causes  of  these  burials, 
hoarding,  is  not  so  foreign  to  our  experi- 
ence as  might  be  supposed.  Only  when  a 
hoard  has  been  buried  is  there  a chance  of 
its  becoming  treasure  trove  and  we  are  not 
accustomed  to  burying  our  savings.  Civil- 
ization has  accustomed  us  to  other  means 
of  safekeeping,  and  experience  has  ap- 
proved them  satisfactory.  In  the  cities, 
our  savings  are  placed  in  banks  or  safe 
deposits.  Let  there  be  a run  on  the  bank, 
however,  and  we  see  a return  to  primitive 
conditions  — deposits  are  withdrawn  as 
quickly  as  possible ; and  until  confidence  in 
some  other  institution  overcomes  the  dis- 
trust caused  by  the  failure,  money  is 
hoarded  just  as  carefully  as  it  was  in  the 
time  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans.  When 
we  turn  from  a section  remote  from  city 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

4 

COIN  HOARDS 

life,  to  districts  far  removed  from  the 
conveniences  which  civilization  affords, 
there  is  little  difference  from  the  procedure 
of  the  Ancients.  Among  the  miners,  hid- 
ing gold-dust  becomes  a necessity.  So 
even  to-day  hoarding  is  not  as  exceptional 
a thing  as  it  is  thought. 

In  its  essence,  hoarding  is  a habit.  Al- 
though paper  money  and  banks  have  made 
it  much  less  common,  one  of  its  milder 
forms  tends  to  confirm  it  as  an  instinct 
only  a little  less  deeply  rooted  than  that  of 
preservation  of  life  itself.  There  is  hardly 
one  of  us  who  has  not  caught  himself 
picking  from  a handful  of  change  some  of 
the  new  pieces  designed  by  Weinman, 
MacNeill  and  Fraser  and  spending  first 
the  corresponding  specimens  of  the  earlier 
and  far  less  attractive  coinage.  It  must 
be  conceded  that  this  is  a very  mild  form 
of  hoarding,  but  so  universal  is  this 
tendency  and  so  far  reaching  is  it  in  its 
results,  that  economists  have  formulated 
it  as  a law.  It  is  known  as  Gresham’s 
Law  and  was  so  named  after  the  Com- 
mercial Adviser  of  Queen  Elizabeth. 

NUMISMATIC  NOTES 

COIN  HOARDS 


“In  every  country  where  two  kinds  of  legal 
money  are  in  circulation,  the  bad  money  always 
drives  out  the  good.” 

That  this  was  merely  a re-expression  of 
something  recognized  by  the  Greeks  we 
learn  from  Aristophanes  (Frogs  vv  718- 
726,  Brunck’s  ed.),  who,  using  the  practice 
to  point  a moral,  says 

“The  public  has  often  seemed  to  us  to  treat 
the  wisest  and  ihe  best  of  our  citizens  just  as 
it  does  old  and  new  coins.  For  we  do  not  use 
(spend)  the  latter  (new,  uncirculated  coins) 
at  all  except  in  our  own  houses  or  abroad, 
though  they  are  of  purer  metal,  finer  to  look  at, 
the  only  ones  that  are  well  coined  and  round ; 
on  the  contrary,  we  prefer  to  use  (spend)  vile 
copper  pieces,  struck  and  stamped  in  the  most 
infamous  fashion.” 

The  explanation  of  our  preference  for 
new  or  fine  coins,  offered  by  the  distin- 
guished French  economist  Gide  (Political 
Economy,  Veditz’  Second  American  Edi- 
tion, 1909,  p.  238),  is  worth  quoting: 

“Money  is  not  destined,  like  other  wealth, 
either  for  our  consumption  or  for  production, 
but  solely  for  exchange.  Of  two  fruits,  we  pre- 
fer the  more  luscious ; of  two  watches,  the 


AND  MONOGRAPHS 


6 

COIN  HOARDS 

one  that  keeps  the  better  time.  But  of  two 
pieces  of  money,  unequal  in  quality,  it  matters ! 
little  to  us  whether  we  use  the  one  or  the  other ; 
they  are  not  for  our  personal  use,  but  only 
employed  to  pay  our  creditors  and  our  trades- 
men. Hence,  it  would  be  foolish  to  use  the 
better  money  for  this  purpose  ; on  the  contrary, 
it  is  to  our  interest  to  choose  the  worse,  and 
this  is  precisely  what  we  do.  Our  choice  is 
of  course  conditioned  upon  the  assumption  that 
the  creditor  or  tradesman  shall  not  have  the 
right  to  refuse  inferior  money ; in  other  words, 
the  bad  money  must  have  paying  power  as  well 
as  the  good.  When  this  is  the  case,  i.e.  when- 
ever both  kinds  of  money  are  legal  tender, 
Gresham’s  law  is  applicable. 

“This  explains  why  bad  money  continues  in 
circulation,  but  not  why  good  money  disappears. 
Where  does  the  good  money  go  ? It  disappears 
in  three  different  ways : by  hoarding,  payments 
abroad,  sales  by  weight.” 

Now,  since  hoarding  is  one  of  the  initial 
causes  of  coin  burials  and,  consequently, 
of  coin  finds,  it  may  be  well  to  consider  it 
further.  Let  us  bear  in  mind  that  al- 
though Gide  was  writing  from  the  stand- 
point of  modern  rather  than  of  ancient 
history,  the  universality  of  the  practice 
makes  his  words  applicable  to  very  early 

NUMISMATIC  NOTES 

COIN  HOARDS 

7 

periods,  and  coin  finds  confirm  this.  To 
quote  further : 

“When  people  want  to  put  money  aside  for 
possible  emergencies,  i.e.  when  they  want  to 
keep  it  for  themselves,  they  do  not  pick  out 
the  bad  pieces  to  save.  On  the  contrary,  they 
choose  the  best,  because  these  offer  the  best 
security.  The  panic-stricken  people  who  wished 
to  hoard  money  during  the  French  Revolution 
did  not  waste  their  time  saving  depreciated 
paper  money.  — the  so-called  assignats,  — 
but  laid  aside  gold  coins.  The  contemporaries 
of  our  Revolutionary  War  did  not  save  the  next 
to  worthless  ‘ continental  ’ paper  money,  but 
whatever  metallic  money  they  could  get  hold 
of.  Banks  do  the  same  thing,  preferring  to 
increase  their  supply  of  good  rather  than  that 
of  poor  money.  In  this  manner  a considerable 
amount  of  the  good  money  may  disappear  from 
circulation.” 

Gide’s  conclusions,  moreover,  are  worth 
repeating.  We  find  good  money  being 
driven  out  by  bad. 

a)  “Whenever  worn  money  is  in  circulation 
with  newly  coined  money.  It  was  in  this  case 
that  the  law  was  first  discovered  by  Sir  Thomas 
Gresham.  New  coins  had  been  struck  to  take 
the  place  of  those  in  circulation,  which  were 
greatly  depreciated  (far  more  by  clipping  than 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

8 

COIN  HOARDS 

by  wear)  ; and  it  was  noted  with  dismay  that 
the  new  coins  disappeared  speedily,  while  the 
old  ones  seemed  to  be  more  abundant  than 
ever.  Unless  a government  resorts  to  frequent 
recoinages,  it  will  encounter  great  difficulties 
in  replacing  old  and  abraded  coins  by  new  ones. 

b)  “Whenever  light  money  is  in  circulation 
together  with  good  money  or  even  when  good 
money  is  in  circulation  together  with  heavy 
money,  in  this  case  the  lighter  money  drives 
out  the  other.” 

A singular  working  out  of  Gresham’s  law 
has  occurred  in  France  as  a result  of  the 
late  war.  Because  of  the  let-up  in  silver 
production,  without  any  diminishing  of  the 
demand,  the  value  of  silver  had  risen  until 
the  bullion  value  of  silver  coins  in  our  own, 
and  in  most  of  the  European  countries,  was 
above  the  face  value  of  the  coin.  As  a 
result,  the  silver  pieces  have  been  disap- 
pearing from  circulation,  the  melting  pot 
being  their  presumable  destination.  As 
each  issue  of  the  French  mint  appeared, 
the  coins  were  speedily  absorbed  and  seen 
no  more. 

To  meet  this  condition,  a rather  novel 
plan  was  announced  by  the  French  mint  on 

NUMISMATIC  NOTES 

- - 1 

COIN  HOARDS 

9 

April  15,  1920.  Instead  of  continuing  the 
issuing  of  silver  coins,  the  French  Chambers 
of  Commerce  are  putting  out  a token  coin- 
age, guaranteeing  the  redemption  of  these 
metal  tokens  by  deposits  at  the  Bank  of 
France.  Not  only  should  this  reduce  the 
incentive  to  hoarding  and  make  the  melt- 
ing of  the  new  coins  no  longer  profitable, 
but  it  should  gradually  bring  a reduction 
in  the  price  of  silver  by  decreasing  the 
demand. 

Since  May  1920  the  price  of  silver  has 
fallen  considerably.  One  contributing 
cause  is  doubtless  the  changing  of  the 
standard  for  India  from  a silver  to  a gold 
basis,  thus  eliminating  one  of  the  largest 
markets  for  silver.  The  action  of  the 
French  authorities  as  described  above  is 
probably  another  contributing  element  as 
is  also  the  decision  of  Great  Britain  to 
reduce  the  quantity  of  silver  in  subse- 
quent coinages.  With  the  incentive  to 
return  to  the  pre-war  mining  output, 
the  supply  is  likely  to  become  normal. 
All  these  factors  have  doubtless  con- 
tributed towards  the  fall  in  the  price. 

1 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

IO 

COIN  HOARDS 

With  this  fall,  inducement  to  hoarding1 
passes  and  a return  to  usual  conditions 
will  in  all  likelihood  follow  gradually. 

If  during  the  stringency,  however,  some 
peasant  of  rural  France,  distrusting  the 
banks  and  fearing  a panic,  should  have 
buried  his  savings,  this  hoard  would  afford 
a true  reflection  of  these  conditions.  The 
currency  from  which  it  would  be  possible  to 
make  his  savings,  could  not  but  evidence ' 
the  scarcity  of  coined  money  in  circulation, 
and  in  countless  ways,  the  measures  to 
which  the  French  financial  authorities 
were  driven  to  meet  conditions,  would  be 
demonstrated.  It  is  this  unconscious 
testimony  of  coin  finds,  as  I trust  we  shall 
see,  that  provides  us  with  some  of  our 
most  valuable  information. 

BURYING 

Only  hoards  that  are  buried  are  likely  to 
become  treasure  trove.  Therefore,  it  is 
with  imperishable  metallic  currency  that 
we  are  concerned.  As  we  have  seen,  mod- 
ern conditions  have  tended  to  remove  the 
incentives  to  hoarding.  These  circum- 

NUMISMATIC  NOTES 

COIN  HOARDS 

1 

11 

stances  have  so  become  a part  of  our  daily- 
life  that  it  requires  an  active  imagination 
to  conceive  the  contrasts  under  which 
the  ancient  peoples  lived.  Every  man 
was  his  own  banker.  The  Greeks  and 
Romans  did  have  bills  of  credit  and 
bankers  of  standing.  A few  transactions 
were  arranged  through  bankers  without  a 
transfer  of  money,  but  owing  to  the  diffi- 
culties of  travel  and  the  need  for  protec- 
tion in  even  the  most  highly  civilized 
sections,  the  guarding  of  one’s  wealth  was 
a very  important  part  of  the  civic  life. 
They  had  much  less  money  to  handle  and 
this  increased  rather  than  lessened  the 
care  with  which  it  was  guarded.  It  is 
recorded  that  the  Greek  soldier  received 
as  his  pay  a daric  for  a month’s  service. 

In  a very  interesting  lecture  by  the  emi- 
nent Dr.  George  Macdonald,  read  before 
the  Royal  Philosophical  Society  of  Glasgow 
in  1903,  he  analyzes  three  of  the  causes  why 
hoards  are  buried,  as  assigned  in  the  Di- 
gest : Profit,  Safety  and  Fear.  Reasoning 
very  carefully,  Dr.  Macdonald  points  out 
that  only  in  the  event  of  the  death  of  the 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

12 

COIN  HOARDS 

owner,  would  any  hoard  buried  either  for 
profit  or  safety,  be  likely  to  have  been  un- 
earthed.  With  the  third  motive,  Fear,  j 
however,  we  have  a different  reaction,  and 
fear  was  an  ever-present  element  in  the 
life  of  the  ancient  people. 

We  cite  two  of  Dr.  Macdonald’s  illustra- 
tions : 

“When  Cassius  captured  Rhodes,  he  confis- 
cated not  only  all  the  bullion  belonging  to  the 
state  or  dedicated  in  the  temples,  but  the  gold 
and  silver  of  all  private  citizens  as  well.  The 
result  promised  to  be  disappointing.  For,  i 
Appian  tells  us,  when  the  alarm  was  first 
given,  the  citizens  had  gone  and  concealed  most  j 
of  their  money.  Cassius,  however,  was  not  to  1 
be  over-reached.  He  offered  large  rewards  for| 
the  discovery  of  hidden  hoards,  and  inflicted 
the  death  penalty  on  those  who  had  concealed ! 
them.  When  the  Rhodians  saw  that  the  victor 
was  not  to  be  trifled  with,  they  begged  for  an 
extension  of  the  time  for  the  surrender  of  their 
property.  This  was  granted,  and  thereupon, 
says  Appian,  a very  much  larger  quantity  of 
money  was  forthcoming  — ‘ some  digging  it 
up  from  holes  in  the  ground,  others  drawing 
it  from  the  bottom  of  wells,  others  again  produc- 1 
ing  it  from  graves.’  What  happened  at  Rhodes  1 
in  42  b.c.,  must  often  have  happened  elsewhere,  j 

NUMISMATIC  NOTES 

COIN  HOARDS 

13 

The  laws  of  ancient  warfare  took  little  regard 
of  the  rights  of  private  property,  and  in  times 
of  danger  a most  natural  instinct  would  lead 
men  to  bury  their  treasure  underground,  see- 
ing that  it  would  no  longer  be  safe  in  their 
houses.  When  the  storm  burst,  some  of  those 
who  had  thus  concealed  their  goods  would 
be  slain  or  carried  into  captivity,  leaving  un- 
claimed deposits  to  be  turned  up  centuries 
afterwards  by  the  spade  of  the  workman  or  the 
plough  of  the  peasant. 

“I  said  that  the  instinct  to  bury  treasure 
underground  in  times  of  danger  is  a most 
natural  one.  ...  I suppose  that  everyone 
will  agree  that  there  never  was  a more  ‘human’ 
man  than  Mr.  Samuel  Pepys.  His  diary  for 
the  early  days  of  June,  1667,  reflects  the  alarm 
caused  throughout  London  and  all  over  Eng- 
land by  the  Dutch  raid  on  the  Thames.  On 
the  10th  their  ships  were  at  Sheerness,  ‘and  we 
do  plainly  at  this  time  hear  the  guns  play.’ 
Again  on  the  13th.  ‘No  sooner  up  but  hear 
the  sad  news  confirmed  of  the  Royale  Charles 
being  taken  by  them,  and  now  in  fitting  by 
them  . . . and  turning  several  others ; and 
that  another  fleet  is  come  up  into  the  Hope. 
Upon  which  newes  the  King  and  the  Duke  of 
York  have  been  below  (London  Bridge)  since 
four  o’clock  in  the  morning,  to  command  the 
sinking  of  ships  at  Barking  Creeke,  and  other 
places,  to  stope  their  coming  up  higher : which 
put  me  into  such  a fear,  that  I presently  resolved 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

14 

COIN  HOARDS 

of  my  father’s  and  wife’s  going  into  the  country : 
and,  at  two  hours’  warning,  they  did  go  by 
coach  this  day,  with  about  Thirteen  Hundred 
Pounds  in  gold  in  their  night  bag.  Pray  God 
give  them  good  passage,  and  good  care  to  hide 
it  when  they  come  home  ! But  my  heart  is 
full  of  fear.  They  gone,  I continued  in  fright 
and  fear  what  to  do  with  the  rest.’  A little 
later  in  the  day  he  decided.  ‘ I did,  about 
noon,  resolve  to  send  Mr.  Gibson  away  after 
my  wife  with  another  1,000  pieces,  under  colour 
of  an  express  to  Sir  Jeremy  Smith.’  I shall 
not  quote  further,  but  simply  refer  you  to  the 
Diary  for  the  sequel.  The  money  was  duly 
buried  in  the  garden  as  Pepys  had  instructed, 
but  the  manner  of  doing  it  was  not  at  all  to  his 
mind,  and  led  to  one  of  the  little  matrimonial 
differences  which  he  so  faithfully  records.  Under 
dates,  Oct.  ioth,  nth,  12th,  of  the  same  year, 
you  will  find  full  details  as  to  the  troubles  he 
encountered  in  digging  it  up  again.” 

As  an  additional  illustration  of  the  rea- 
sons for  secreting  treasure,  I submit  the 
evidence  offered  by  a Burgundian  tapestry, 
dating  from  1400-1450,  in  the  possession 
of  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art.  The 
subject  is  the  sacking  of  a city.  From  the 
analogy  which  the  incidents  offer  to  the 
description  of  the  sacking  of  Jerusalem  as 

NUMISMATIC  NOTES 

Container  of  the  Southants  Hoard. 


Detail  of  Burgundian  Tapestry. 


3.V" 


COIN  HOARDS 

i5 

given  by  Josephus,  it  is  somewhat  hesitat- 
ingly identified  as  such,  and  the  presence 
of  a portable  tabernacle,  possibly  intended 
to  represent  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant,  lends 
color  to  this  identification. 

Whether  the  intended  subject  is  the 
sacking  of  Jerusalem  or  not  need  hardly 
concern  us  at  present.  More  pertinent  is 
the  close  following  of  the  description  given 
by  Josephus  fWars  of  the  Jews,  Book  V, 
Chapters  io  and  13).  The  distinguished 
historian  relates  that  after  the  capture 
of  Jerusalem,  many  of  the  Jews  swallowed 
pieces  of  gold  and  jewelry  to  prevent  them 
from  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  Romans. 
The  conditions  which  resulted  when  this 
knowledge  came  to  the  ears  of  the  Roman 
general  are  such  as  were  depicted  in  the 
tapestry.  The  chest  of  golden  vessels 
should  be  noted  as  well  as  the  host  appar- 
ently awaiting  treatment  similar  to  that 
accorded  the  kneeling  figure  in  the  central 
foreground.  The  frontispiece  enables 
us  to  dispense  with  a description  of  the 
gruesomeness  of  the  scene.  One  won- 
ders whether  the  victims  may  not  have 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

16 

COIN  HOARDS 

served  as  a terrible  example  in  the  hope 
that  there  would  result  an  unearthing  of 
treasure  similar  to  that  described  in  con- 
nection with  the  capture  of  Rhodes. 
Certainly,  there  seems  to  be  a free  passing 
of  coin  from  hand  to  hand. 

That  such  conditions  were  far  from  un- 
common in  those  early  days  we  may  well 
believe.  What  wonder  then  that  the  sav- 
ings of  the  people  were  buried  ? When  for 
any  reason  the  owner  succumbed  in  battle 
or  as  a victim  of  chance,  his  hidden  savings 
have  become  the  source  from  which  we  now 
derive  so  much  benefit. 

FINDINGS 

In  considering  conditions  which  conduce 
to  hoarding,  as  well  as  the  reasons  for  the 
burial  of  the  hoards  once  they  have  been 
made,  an  interesting  question  arises  as  to 
whose  property  such  a hoard  is  when  it  is 
discovered.  What  have  been  the  laws  re- 
garding treasure  trove  throughout  the 
countries  of  Europe  in  which  finds  are 
common  ? 

NUMISMATIC  NOTES 

COIN  HOARDS 

i7 

We  have  a very  satisfactory  knowledge 
of  the  Roman  law,  and  it  is  interesting  to 
I note  that  the  Romans  considered  the  ques- 
tion with  characteristic  thoroughness.  The 
very  liberal  law  established  by  Hadrian  is 
known  to  us  in  what  is  practically  its  actual 
wording.  According  to  its  ruling,  a private 
individual  became  the  owner  of  treasure 
discovered  on  his  property.  If,  however, 
he  discovered  the  treasure  on  another  per- 
j son’s  land,  the  finder  shared  equally  with 
the  owner  in  the  division,  and  this  held 
|good  even  though  the  land  on  which  the 
discovery  was  made  belonged  to  the  State. 
The  laws  varied  with  the  changing  Em- 
perors, most  of  them  claiming  a portion  of 
any  treasure  discovered.  A brief  summary 
of  the  laws  among  the  Romans  was  pub- 
lished in  the  Numismatic  Chronicle,  1902, 
by  Messieurs  A.  Blanchet  and  H.  A. 
Grueber. 

During  the  Middle  Ages,  the  King 
claimed  a right  to  treasure  unearthed  in 
his  dominions,  although  sometimes  his 
rights  were  assigned  in  behalf  of  one  to 
whom  the  land  had  been  given  in  fief. 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

i8 

COIN  HOARDS 

Thus,  Henry  II  granted  to  the  Monastery 
of  Ramsey 

“To  receive  sac  and  soc  (the  right  of  holding 
a court),  thol  and  theam  (market  and  the  issue 
of  the  bondsmen),  forstal  (the  intercepting  on 
the  highway),  blodwith  (a  fine  paid  as  a com- 
pensation for  bloodshed)  and  the  finding  of 
treasure ; and  likewise  all  other  privileges  which 
belong  to  the  King.” 

The  decrees  of  St.  Louis  assigned  treasure 
trove  of  gold  to  the  King,  but  of  silver  to 
the  Baron.  The  working  out  of  this,  how- 
ever, is  very  indefinite  and  we  may  well  be- 
lieve that  except  with  finds  of  exceptional 
value  no  word  ever  reached  the  ears  of  the 
authorities. 

For  England,  Blackstone’s  definition 
will  bear  quotation  as  the  foundation 
principle : 

“Treasure  is  where  any  money,  coin,  gold, 
silver,  plate,  or  bullion,  is  found  hidden  in  the 
earth,  or  other  private  place,  the  owner  thereof 
being  unknown.  And  in  such  a case,  the  treas- 
ure found  belongs  to  the  Crown ; but  if  he  that 
hid  it  be  known  or  afterwards  found  out,  the 
owner,  and  not  the  Sovereign,  is  entitled  to  it. 
It  is  the  hiding,  and  not  the  abandonment,  | 

NUMISMATIC  NOTES 

COIN  HOARDS 

19 

that  gives  the  King  the  property ; for  if  a man 
scatters  his  treasure  into  the  sea  or  upon  the 
surface  of  the  earth,  it  belongs  not  to  the  Sov- 
ereign, but  to  the  first  finder.  Formerly, 
indeed,  treasure  trove,  whether  hidden,  lost, 
or  abandoned,  belonged  to  the  finder ; but 
afterwards  it  was  judged  expedient,  for  the 
purposes  of  the  State,  and  particularly  for  the 
coinage,  to  allow  part  of  what  was  so  found  to 
the  King  — which  part  was  assigned  to  be  all 
hidden  treasure,  as  distinguished  from  such  as 
was  either  casually  lost  or  designedly  abandoned 
by  the  former  Ovmer.” 

It  is  the  working  out  of  the  later  adaptation 
of  this  excellent  English  law  which  has 
provided  the  material  for  the  exceptionally 
complete  arrangement  of  the  early  coinage 
of  the  British  Isles.  England  is  in  advance 
of  most  other  European  countries  in  this 
regard.  Under  the  present  laws,  the 
Crown  claims  the  right  to  treasure  trove, 
but  a fairly  liberal  offer  is  made  to  the 
finder  who  fully  and  promptly  reports 
a discovery  and  turns  the  whole  of  it  over 
to  the  authorities.  The  basis  of  the  find- 
ers’ reimbursement  is  no  longer  the  bullion 
! value  of  pieces  comprised  in  the  find,  but 
their  antiquarian  value.  This  has  re- 

AND  MONOGRAPHS  , 

I 

1 

20 

COIN  HOARDS 

suited  in  making  it  to  the  interest  of  the 
finder  to  report  his  discovery  to  the  author- 
ities. Thereby,  he  receives  much  more 
than  would  be  the  case  if  he  merely  melted  j 
it  for  its  metal  content,  a procedure  pre- 
ferable under  the  former  conditions  be- 
cause it  dispensed  with  the  interference  of 
the  authorities.  When  a find  is  received 
at  the  Treasury,  it  is  forwarded  to  the 
British  Museum  and  there  classified. 
Pieces  desired  for  the  National  Collection 
are  set  aside  and  paid  for  at  their  market 1 
value ; the  remainder,  also,  is  valued 
and  returned  to  the  Treasury  for  such  dis- 
posal in  the  coin  market  as  seems  wise. 
The  result  of  this  procedure  is  that  finds 
come  to  the  British  Museum  in  their  en- 
tirety. Being  able  to  study  them  with  the 
knowledge  that  the  complete  hoard  is  pres- 
ent is  a consideration  difficult  to  overesti- 
mate. 

In  France,  under  a law  of  1887,  the 
State  assumes  ownership  of  every  object 
found  in  its  domain  upon  consideration  of 
refunding  one-half  its  value  to  the  finder. 
In  Italy,  also,  the  State  possesses  the  right 

NUMISMATIC  NOTES 

COIN  HOARDS 

21 

of  preemption,  but  as  the  indemnity  offered 
by  the  State  is  small,  the  result  is  unsatis- 
factory. Finds  of  treasure  instead  of 
being  reported  are  concealed  from  the 
authorities,  and  any  scientific  benefit  that 
would  come  from  knowledge  of  the  con- 
tents is  thus  lost.  Although  in  Asia 
Minor  excavations  have  been  carried  out 
on  a broad  scale,  the  officiousness  of  the 
Turks  has  made  it  difficult  to  derive 
much  information  regarding  finds  unless 
they  are  small  enough  to  escape  the  atten- 
tion of  the  officials. 

Receptacles  in  which  hoards  are  hidden 
vary  widely.  The  smaller  hoards  are 
usually  found  in  earthen  jars ; often,  they 
are  broken  in  the  finding,  but  the  protec- 
tion they  have  afforded  accounts  for  the 
unusual  condition  in  which  some  of  the 
ancient  coins  come  down  to  us.  Some- 
times the  vessel  is  of  bronze,  and  if  the 
soil  be  a dry  one,  the  oxidation  of  the  jar 
may  not  have  advanced  to  such  an  extent 
that  its  contents  are  affected.  In  one  case 
the  jar  had  so  disintegrated  that  the 
weight  of  the  gold  coins  it  contained  was 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

22 

COIN  HOARDS 

| 

greater  than  it  could  stand,  and  the  gold 
pieces  fell  like  Danae’s  shower  when  it 
was  raised.  In  another  case,  a small 
hoard  was  found  protected  by  a horn,  and 
in  one  other  instance,  about  a pint  of  small 
coins  was  discovered  in  a leathern  bagl 
further  protected  by  a broken  iron  pot. 
Hoards  have  sometimes  been  brought  to 
light  by  the  washing  away  of  a river  bank 
or  the  blowing  down  of  a tree.  One  of  the 
strangest  discoveries  was  made  when  an  old 
oak  beam  which  had  been  stacked  away  for 
years  after  its  removal  from  a demolished 
building  was  split  for  firewood ; a hole  j 
which  was  filled  with  English  gold  coins 
was  disclosed,  and  a little  further  along  in  s 
the  same  beam  a second  hole  also  filled  with 
gold  coins  was  found.  As  may  be  imag-  i 
ined,  this  brought  a very  pretty  question 
as  to  the  ownership  of  the  coins.  In  the 
British  Isles,  finds  have  been  discovered 
in  wooden  boxes,  but  these  are  hardly 
likely  to  last  over  very  many  centuries. 
Like  bags  of  cloth,  they  vanish,  leaving! 
the  material  they  contain  subject  to  the 
action  of  the  soil. 

NUMISMATIC  NOTES 

Container  of  the  Vourla  Hoard. 


COIN  HOARDS 

23 

The  places  in  which  hoards  are  found 
vary  almost  as  much  as  the  containers  for 
them.  One  might  think  that  remote  and 
secluded  hiding  places  would  be  sought, 
and  this  is  often  true.  One  find  was  buried 
in  the  crater  of  an  extinct  volcano.  An- 
other was  found  eight  feet  below  the  sur- 
face of  the  bed  of  a river  while  excavating 
for  a new  bridge  at  Bologna.  In  this  case, 
it  was  surmised  that  the  owner  must  have 
been  drowned  and  that  a change  in  the  bed 
of  the  river  had  accumulated  that  amount 
of  earth.  During  the  war  of  1914-1918, 
several  hoards  were  discovered  in  digging 
trenches. 

The  difficulties  of  concealing  some  of 
these  hoards  must  have  been  considerable, 
for  the  hoard  of  Brescello  is  said  to  have 
contained  eighty  thousand  aurei,  all 
struck  between  the  years  708  and  716 
of  the  Roman  era.  Finds  are  frequently 
discovered  while  digging  foundations  in 
the  modern  survivals  of  ancient  cities. 
Frequent  finds  have  been  made  in  this 
way  at  Taranto.  The  varying  conditions, 
manifold  forms  and  peculiar  circumstances 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 

24 

COIN  HOARDS 

which  surround  each  coin  find,  make  them 
fascinating  subjects  of  study.  They  are 
being  utilized  more  and  more  by  numis- 
matists but  even  yet  their  value  is  not 
fully  realized. 

CONDITION 

From  the  specimens  which  we  see  in 
the  cabinets  of  collectors,  we  are  apt  to 
form  a very  incorrect  opinion  of  the  condi- 
tion of  coins  when  they  occur  in  hoards. 
Gold  coins  show  effects  of  burial  least. 
None  of  the  soil  acids  have  sufficient 
strength  to  affect  gold,  and  any  incrusta- 
tions are  easily  removable.  Only  when 
in  very  rare  cases  the  mass  has  been  sub- 
jected  to  compression  sufficient  to  flatten; 
or  deface  the  pieces,  are  the  gold  coins 
likely  to  show  change. 

With  silver  the  condition  is  in  contrast, 
but  when  the  hoard  is  protected  by  an 
earthen  or  metal  container,  and  when  it 
is  buried  in  a soil  that  is  not  moist  and 
which  does  not  contain  chemical  agents, 
especially  sulphur  or  chlorine,  the  surface  of 
the  piece  would  in  all  probability  not  show 

NUMISMATIC  NOTES 

Encrusted  stater  of  Alexander  the  Great, 
American  Numismatic  Society’s  Collection, 


COIN  HOARDS 

25 

any  very  considerable  change.  If,  how- 
ever, the  burial  is  made  in  a volcanic 
region,  the  pieces  are  often  found  massed 
together  and  it  is  all  but  impossible  to 
separate  them.  Often  the  silver  shows 
pittings  or  other  surface  imperfections, 
but  usually  enough  of  the  coins  are  legible 
to  enable  the  classification  of  the  others. 
Some  of  the  thin  incuse  staters  of  Magna 
Graecia  show  a crystalline  transforma- 
tion of  the  metal.  As  a result,  the  coins 
are  so  brittle  that  they  break  easily. 

As  for  bronze  in  its  many  forms,  (brass, 
aurichalchum,  copper  and  pieces  plated 
with  a light  coating  of  silver)  — it  suffers 
most  of  all.  Whenever  any  moisture 
is  present,  oxidation  soon  takes  place, 
and  frequently  the  bronze  coins  in  a hoard 
will  be  matted  together  into  a hopeless 
mass.  Often,  they  are  covered  with 
verdigris,  and  sometimes  it  is  impossible 
to  free  them  from  the  accretions.  Occa- 
sionally, however  — and  this  is  especially 
true  with  the  many  forms  of  Roman 
bronzes  — they  take  on  a patina  which 
age  alone  can  give.  In  some  places  there 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

26 

1 

COIN  HOARDS 

results  a beautiful  turquoise  blue,  in  others 
a rich  warm  green,  while  elsewhere  a 
deep  brown  tone  is  acquired.  Occasion- 
ally lead  pieces  are  found,  but,  unless  they 
have  been  very  carefully  protected,  they 
oxidize  and  crumble. 

In  dating  coin  finds,  a great  deal  of 
stress  is  laid  upon  the  condition  of  the  I 
pieces.  Those  which  show  the  least  signs 
of  wear  are  likely  to  be  the  latest  in  the 
find.  The  term  fleur-de-coin  (flower  of 
the  die,  literally)  is  used  to  indicate  a 
piece  which  shows  no  sign  of  wear,  and 
which  is,  therefore,  approximately  as 
it  appeared  when  it  left  the  die.  Here, 
Gresham’s  law  comes  into  play  again, 
for  in  making  a hoard  under  ordinary 
conditions,  the  brightest  and  freshest 
pieces  are  the  ones  which  would  be  re- 
tained; and  as  bright  coins  are  likely 
to  be  the  most  recent,  the  burial  of  thei 
hoard  is  presumably  to  be  dated  within - 
a short  time  after  such  pieces  were  struck. 
If  there  occur  pieces  of  one  or  more  cities 
whose  coinages  have  been  chronologi- 
cally arranged,  and  the  fleur-de-coin  pieces 

NUMISMATIC  NOTES 

Mass  of  encrusted  Roman  bronze  coins. 
American  Numismatic  Society’s  Collection. 


COIN  HOARDS 

27 

in  the  hoard  confirm  one  another,  then 
there  is  strong  evidence  for  dating  the 
burial  shortly  after  such  coins  were  struck. 
With  the  absence  of  contradictory  evi- 
dence on  the  part  of  other  pieces  in  the 
find,  one  may  with  confidence  rely  upon 
the  conclusions  thus  reached. 

Obviously,  some  of  the  most  important 
deductions  drawn  from  coin  finds  are 
chronological.  The  reason  is  apparent 
when  we  recall  that  not  until  a late  period 
were  the  Greek  coins  dated,  and  that  the 
Roman  coins  of  the  Imperial  period  are 
dated  according  to  the  annual  Tribunician 
Power  conferred  upon  the  Emperor.  The 
Consular  issues,  of  course,  are  without 
such  dating,  and  in  placing  these  in  their 
proper  order,  finds  have  been  an  indis- 
pensable aid.  The  indications  of  style 
are  too  slight  to  serve  as  criteria,  and  the 
long  list  of  moneyers  includes  too  many 
names  of  those  who  never  achieved  enough 
distinction  to  entitle  them  to  a place  in 
historical  records.  Hoards  of  these  de- 
narii are  of  frequent  occurrence.  With 
the  coming  of  the  Goths  and  Vandals,  and 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

I 

28 

COIN  HOARDS 

throughout  the  Dark  Ages,  the  coinage 
of  Europe  is  rarely  dated,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  dinars  and  dirhems  of  the 
Arabs.  These  are  dated  from  the  year 
of  the  Hejira  (the  Flight  of  Mahommed, 
622  a.d.),  and  as  they  circulated  widely  > 
throughout  the  Christian  as  well  as  in 
the  Moslem  world  from  800-1400  a.d., 
they  aid  greatly  in  placing  the  other  coins , 
with  which  they  are  found. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  point  out  the 
value  of  having  the  coins  of  a city  or 
State  arranged  in  consecutive  order. 
With  the  Greeks,  such  arrangement 
demonstrates  their  artistic  growth  from 
an  archaic  to  a fine  style  and  thence  to  the 
decadence  of  Hellenistic  times,  for,  as 
has  been  said  again  and  again,  Greek  coins 
form  the  grammar  of  Greek  Art.  The 
history  of  the  innumerable  city  states 
is  clarified,  especially  when  the  names  of 
the  local  magistrates  begin  to  appear, 
as  on  the  late  Athenian  tetradrachms ! 
(229  b.c.  to  the  time  of  Augustus).  In 
addition,  there  are  valuable  sidelights ; 
on  the  life  of  the  people.  Coins  late  in  a 

NUMISMATIC  NOTES 

COIN  HOARDS 

29 

series  will  frequently  afford  an  explana- 
tion of  types  used  centuries  before.  A 
single  instance  of  the  classifying  value  of 
finds  is  submitted. 

For  many  years  it  has  been  an  open 
question  whether  the  coins  of  Lacedaemon 
with  the  archaic  votive  statue  of  Apollo  and 
some  of  the  succeeding  types  belonged  to 
Sparta  or  to  Alaria  in  Crete,  the  AA  under 
the  second  attribution  being  considered 
retrograde.  The  authorities  were  divided, 

1 and  the  style  offered  no  assistance.  Within 
the  past  twenty  years,  a hoard  found  in 
| Sparta  has  definitely  established  that  these 
i coins  have  nothing  to  do  with  Crete. 

Aside  from  these  reasons,  the  chrono- 
| logical  ordering  is  desirable  if  only  for  the 
dating  of  further  finds.  It  is  to  classi- 
fications such  as  have  been  outlined  above, 
that  we  turn  for  information  in  approxi- 
j mating  the  dates  of  new  finds  — Heads 
1 coinage  of  Syracuse  for  Sicily ; of  Boeotia 
Tor  Central  Greece;  Gardner’s  ‘Elis’; 
Evans’  ‘Horsemen  of  Tarentum’  for 
i Magna  Graecia ; Mommsen  and  Haeber- 
lin  for  Pre-Imperial  Rome ; Sir  John 

1 

1 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

1 ■ 

! 30 

1 

COIN  HOARDS 

Evans  for  Early  British  Coinage ; Schlum- 
berger  for  the  Bracteates  — all  these  are 
of  greatest  importance  in  establishing  a 
date  for  the  burial  of  a hoard  in  which 
occur  any  pieces  of  the  respective  series 
of  which  they  treat.  These  wonderful 
arrangements  are  edifices  into  which  have 
been  built  all  the  knowledge  and  experi- 
ence of  their  authors.  Not  always  is 
the  reasoning  which  has  governed  the 
arrangement  given ; in  many  cases  it 
would  unduly  burden  the  reader.  The 
stanchness  of  the  whole,  however,  is  its 
best  claim  to  consideration  as  a sound 
piece  of  construction.  Style,  fabric,  types, 
peculiarities  of  inscription,  magistrates’ 
and  artists’  signatures  — all  these  internal 
evidences  are  utilized  to  the  fullest  extent, 
while  external  data,  obtained  from  con- 
temporary writers  or  monumental  inscrip- 
tions, is  combined  with  information  de- 
rived from  finds  and  hoards,  to  bring  about 
the  final  result.  The  ordering  of  these 
bits  requires  the  nicest  logical  discrimi- 
nation and  a freedom  from  bias  such  as 
few  investigators  possess. 

NUMISMATIC  NOTES 

COIN  HOARDS 

3i 

The  confirmative  value  of  finds  can 
best  be  demonstrated  by  a supposititious 
case.  If  we  assume  three  finds  each 
containing  coins  of  one  city,  and  assume 
again  that  all  three  may  be  dated  from 
the  issues  of  other  cities  included  in  the 
finds,  and  that  these  datings  mark  an 
interval  of  fifty  years,  it  is  evident  that 
the  types  occurring  in  Find  B,  which  are 
not  in  A,  are  likely  to  have  been  issued 
during  the  interval  of  fifty  years  which 
separates  them.  This  will,  also,  hold  for 
Find  C as  compared  with  B.  By  arrang- 
ing these  pieces  in  three  groups,  it  will  be 
seen  that  we  have  a criterion  of  style 
enabling  the  interpolation  of  other  types 
which  do  not  occur  in  these  finds.  With 
information  from  other  sources  and  the 
internal  evidences  of  the  coins  themselves, 
we  may  by  all  these  means  arrive  at  an 
ordering  which  will  meet  with  general 
! acceptance. 

Commercial  lessons  which  we  may 
draw  from  hoards  promise  to  be  of  very 
j great  value,  but,  with  comparatively 
few  exceptions,  they  have  not  yet  been 

' ! 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

' 

32 

COIN  HOARDS 

realized.  The  whole  matter  of  commerce 
has  hardly  been  given  sufficient  weight 
in  our  consideration  of  the  early  coinages. 
Babelon  shows  (Traite,  Tome  I,  Parte  I, 
pp.  23,  24)  that  it  has  been  possible  to 
mark  out  the  commercial  routes  of  the 
mediaeval  merchants  from  the  evidence 
provided  by  finds,  coupled  with  the  con- 
firmation which  the  geography  of  the 
country  supplies.  Thus,  we  know  from 
the  hoards  of  oriental  coins  throughout 
Austria,  Russia  and  Sweden  the  overland 
route  which  the  Arabs  took  to  reach  a 
far-away  Scandinavian  market.  One  of 
such  of  these  finds  numbered  over  eleven 
thousand  Arab  dinars. 

Monsieur  A.  Blanchet  has  given  an 
admirable  demonstration  of  this  use  of 
finds  in  his  very  carefully  studied  essay, 
‘ Recherches  sur  l’lnfluence  Commerciales 
de  Massalia,  en  Gaule  et  dans  ITtalie 
Septentrionale, J Revue  Beige  1913.  He 
lists  and  describes  117  different  finds  in 
which  the  coins  of  Marseilles,  which  began 
as  a Greek  colony,  occur.  From  the 
evidence  of  these  finds,  he  is  able  to  sketch 

NUMISMATIC  NOTES 

COIN  HOARDS 

33 

not  only  the  growth  of  the  commercial 
influence  of  the  metropolis  of  Southern 
Gaul,  but  to  demonstrate  the  successive 
steps  in  its  growth.  This  is  possible  be- 
cause the  neighboring  people  imitated 
the  type  of  Massalia,  and  by  locating  the 
occurrence  of  these  imitations,  he  is  able 
to  define  the  limits  reached  by  the  mer- 
chants of  this  city;  and  from  the  types 
imitated,  approximately  the  time  their 
influence  reached  this  section.  His  con- 
clusions are  borne  out  by  the  coincidence 
that  the  finds  occur  along  the  line  of  the 
least  geographical  resistance. 

Most  of  the  deductions  which  we  have 
been  discussing  as  having  been  drawn 
ifrom  finds  of  coins  are  quasi -historical, 
and  because  it  is  very  difficult  to  distin- 
guish between  the  information  drawn 
from  the  finds  and  that  derived  from  the 
coins  themselves,  it  seems  unwise  to  insist 
upon  that  point  in  this  connection.  Let  us 
bear  in  mind  that  the  ancient  coins,  espe- 
cially with  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  are 
each  of  them  a historical  document.  We 
have  for  an  illustration  the  confirmative 

1 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

COIN  HOARDS 

value  of  the  findings  of  various  hoards  of 
coins  along  the  line  of  the  wall  built  by 
the  Romans  across  the  northern  part  of 
England  to  prevent  the  incursions  of  the! 
Piets.  These  have  contributed  to  the 
discovery  of  traces  of  that  wall.  In  its  I 
political  phases,  finds  have  clarified  some 
of  the  many  troublesome  questions  as 
to  the  extent  of  the  mediaeval  principali- 
ties in  Germany  and  Central  Europe. 

ANADOL  FIND 

There  are  a number  of  finds  of  great 
importance  to  the  history  of  numismatics, 
and  a brief  mention  of  some  of  these  will 
not  be  out  of  place.  One  such  occurred 
near  Anadol,  a little  town  in  Bessarabia, 
in  1895.  Some  peasants,  when  excavat- 
ing, discovered  a bronze  vase  containing 
nearly  a thousand  gold  coins  of  the  period 
of  Alexander  the  Great.  What  was  more 
important  than  the  number,  was  the 
fact  that  among  the  979  pieces  which  were 
secured  for  the  Coin  Cabinet  of  the 
Hermitage,  there  were  457  varieties,  and 

NUMISMATIC  NOTES 

COIN  HOARDS 

35 

of  these,  174  had  not  been  previously 
recorded.  The  addition  to  our  knowledge 
of  symbols  and  monograms  was  very 
considerable,  and  Muller’s  work  on  this; 
coinage  was  made  obsolete  by  the  Anadol 
Find. 

AURIOL  HOARD 

■■ 

This  find  was  made  in  1867.  It  con- 
sisted of  2130  silver  coins  all  uninscribed 
and  all  of  the  Archaic  Greek  style.  They 
were  discovered  in  an  earthen  vase. 
Auriol  is  only  a short  distance  from  Mar- 
seilles. The  question  arose  immediately 
— were  these  then  the  earliest  coins  of 
that  Greek  Colony  ? Although  numis- 
matists have  not  been  able  to  agree  in 
their  conclusions  about  the  find,  Monsieur 
Babelon’s  resume  of  the  evidence  is  made 
with  his  characteristic  thoroughness,  and 
there  is  slight  reason  for  doubting  the  date 
he  assigns  for  the  burial  (later  than  480 
b.c.  and  probably  between  470  b.c.  and 
460  b.c.).  Fortunately,  a selection  of 
almost  all  the  varieties  was  secured 
for  the  Paris  Cabinet  where  they  are  avail- 

j 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

36 


COIN  HOARDS 


able  for  study.  Monsieur  Babelon’s  ac- 
count includes  the  record  of  finds  of  simi- 
lar coins,  and  his  position  with  regard  to 
them  is  in  all  probability  the  one  which 

will  have  the  widest  acceptance. 

. 

Le  Tresor  d’Auriol,  et  les  Principales  Trou- 
vailles de  Monnaies  Grecques  Primitives  en  Occi- 
dent. Traite  — Vol.  I,  Part  2,  pp.  1569-1584. 


BOSCOE  REALE  FIND 

Sometimes  the  circumstances  surround- 
ing a find  date  it  absolutely,  and  then 
we  have  a very  different  angle  of  approach. 

Bosco  Reale  lies  on  a slope  of  Mount 
Vesuvius  and,  together  with  Pompeii  and 
Herculaneum,  was  buried  in  the  eruption 
of  79  a.d.  One  of  the  villas  was  unearthed 
in  1895  in  an  unusual  state  of  preserva-j 
tion.  The  wall  paintings  of  the  cubiculum 
of  a neighboring  estate  excavated  a few 
years  later  are  now  exhibited  in  the 
.'Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  New  York 
‘City.  The  portion  of  the  treasure  con- 
sisting of  well-preserved  vessels  of  silver 
in  high  relief  was  purchased  and  given 


NUMISMATIC  NOTES 


COIN  HOARDS 

37 

to  the  Louvre.  This  treasure  of  silver 
vessels  and  jewelry  was  discovered  in  one 
of  the  small  rooms  in  the  villa,  and  not  far 
away  there  lay  a stretched-out  body  — 
perhaps  the  owner,  possibly  only  a faithful 
slave  left  on  guard.  As  part  of  the  treas- 
ure, there  was  a small  chest  containing 
more  than  a thousand  aurei  ranging  from 
the  issues  of  Augustus  to  those  of  Domi- 
tian.  Knowing  that  the  catastrophe  took 
place  in  the  year  79,  we  have  a valuable 
indication  of  the  types  which  passed  cur- 
rent at  that  date.  It  was  noticeable  that 
the  pieces  of  Augustus  and  Tiberius  were 
more  numerous  than  would  have  been 
expected  and  that  they  were  worn  smooth 
through  circulation  while  those  of  the 
other  and  later  Emperors  were  in  the 
finest  condition.  We  have  here,  then,  a 
burial  which  was  accidental  rather  than 
due  to  fear,  and  not  in  the  strictest  sense 
a hoard  at  all.  Presumably,  it  consisted 
of  the  “ready  money”  in  possession  of  the 
owner  of  the  estate. 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

3« 

COIN  HOARDS 

VICARELLO  HOARD 

Some  hoards  suggest  that  they  have 
been  buried  for  reasons  which  do  not  give 
evidence  of  fear  as  the  determining  motive. 
Such  a one  was  the  hoard  of  Vicarello 
unearthed  as  long  ago  as  1852,  on  the  site 
of  some  hot  springs  which  seem  to  have 
been  noted  for  their  healing  qualities  from 
very  early  times.  The  hoard  consisted 
not  only  of  the  heavy  early  bronze  coinage 
of  Rome  and  Central  Italy,  but  coins  of 
the  South  Italian  Greek  cities  as  well. 
The  interval  covered  by  the  pieces  in  the 
find  was  great;  and  the  probability  is 
very  strong  that  we  have  in  this  case 
offerings  made  to  the  Divinity  of  the 
hot  springs  by  those  who  had  benefited 
there.  Whether  or  not  the  accumulation 
was  the  result  of  a practice  such  as 
maintains  today  among  travellers  in  Rome 
who  drop  their  small  coin  into  the  waters 1 
of  the  Fountain  of  Trevi  we  cannot  be 
sure,  but  this  seems  likely.  The  occur- 
rence of  the  early  crude  bronze  pieces  of 
the  Romans  among  the  others  has  been 

NUMISMATIC  NOTES 

COIN  HOARDS 

39 

accepted  as  prima  facie  evidence  of  their 
use  as  currency.  Macdonald  gives  an- 
other instance  of  a similar  nature  — the 
find  in  Coventina’s  Well  at  Carrawburgh, 
a station  on  the  line  of  Hadrian’s  wall. 

SAIDA  FIND 

Saida  is  a small  port  on  the  Syrian  coast 
of  the  Mediterranean  and  was  the  site 
of  a find  of  which  an  entirely  satisfactory 
explanation  has  never  been  offered.  In 
the  garden  of  a country  estate,  in  1820,  a 
find  was  exhumed,  which  from  report 
seems  to  have  been  of  considerable  size. 
Such  was  the  fear  of  the  authorities, 
however,  that  the  hoard  was  secretly 
sold  to  jewelers  and  probably  the  greater 
part  of  it  was  melted.  Twenty-three 
years  later,  in  1852,  in  the  same  garden, 
a second  find  was  made  within  a few  feet 
of  the  site  of  the  first.  There  were  three 
leaden  vases,  each  containing  about  twelve 
hundred  gold  pieces.  The  local  authori- 
ties put  into  prison  those  who  were  sus- 
pected of  having  had  anything  to  do  with 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

40 

COIN  HOARDS 

the  discovery,  but  their  high-handed 
procedure  obtained  for  them  only  about: 
eighteen  hundred  pieces,  which  were  sent 
to  Constantinople.  The  total  number  of 
pieces  in  the  lot  must  have  been  over 
three  thousand ; they  included  staters 
and  double  staters  of  Alexander  and 
staters  of  Philip  II.  In  1863,  that  is, 
eleven  years  later,  a third  discovery  was 
made  in  this  same  garden  within  a short 
distance  of  the  spot  on  which  the  other 
two  were  discovered.  As  with  the  second 
find,  the  money  was  enclosed  in  three 
vases  of  lead  of  the  same  size  as  the  others 
but  different  in  shape.  Each  contained 
about  twelve  hundred  pieces.  Two  held 
staters  of  Alexander  the  Great  only;  the 
third,  other  staters  as  well.  Had  it  beeni 
possible  to  secure  these  three  hoards 
intact  and  to  have  had  an  accurate  de- 
scription of  them,  it  is  very  probable  that 
we  could  have  arranged  the  gold  coinage 
of  Alexander  the  Great  completely. 

NUMISMATIC  NOTES 

COIN  HOARDS 

4i 

BLACKMOOR  HOARD 

This  find  consisted  of  close  to  thirty 
thousand  coins  which  were  enclosed  in 
two  earthen  pots  near  Woolmer  Common 
in  Hampshire.  Evidences  of  a battle  in 
the  neighborhood,  together  with  its  size, 
lend  color  to  the  conjecture  that  this  may 
have  been  the  military  chest  of  Allectus, 
the  successor  of  the  “Emperor  ” of  Britain, 
and  that  it  was  buried  just  previous  to 
his  last  fight,  296  a.d.  The  hoard  is  in- 
teresting because  of  the  number  of  pieces 
of  the  two  emperors  whose  coins  were  the 
latest  of  those  present.  Of  Allectus,  there 
were  ninety,  comprising  ten  varieties,  and 
of  his  predecessor,  Carausius,  545  speci- 
mens, comprising  160  varieties.  The  reign 
of  each  was  brief  — presumably,  most 
of  their  issues  were  present  in  the  find. 

ECONOMY  HOARD 

It  may  seem  fitting  to  close  with  the 
account  of  an  American  hoard  which 
offers  some  points  of  contrast  with  those 
already  mentioned. 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

42 

COIN  HOARDS 

The  town  of  Economy,  Pa.,  is  situated 
on  the  Ohio  River  not  far  from  Pittsburgh. 
It  was  the  home  of  a community  known 
as  the  Harmonists,  established  by  George 
Rapp  about  1803  at  Harmony,  Butler 
County,  Pa.  After  removing  to  Indiana 
and  back  again,  one  branch  of  it  settled 
in  Economy.  Among  its  members  were 
Bernhard  Muller,  and  two  of  the  sons  of 
Robert  Owen  who  had  been  connected1 
with  the  Indiana  community.  Rapp  died 
in  1847.  Through  prosperous  business 
management  the  community  had  accumu- 
lated a sum  which  was  estimated  at  nearly 
$500,000  at  the  time  of  the  Civil  War. 
From  the  beginning  they  had  manifested 
a distrust  of  banks  and  banking  institu- 
tions, and  a large  part  of  this  sum  was  in; 
bullion,  the  remainder  being  in  govern- 
ment bonds. 

In  1863,  during  the  Civil  War,  the  raids  i 
of  the  Confederate  General  Morgan  in 
Kentucky,  Indiana,  and  Ohio  caused  the 
secreting  of  this  accumulation  in  an  under- 
ground vault ; and  it  seems  to  have  re- 
mained hidden  until  1878,  when  the  in- 

NUMISMATIC  NOTES 

COIN  HOARDS 

43 

vestment  of  a large  sum  in  a railroad  then 
being  constructed  brought  it  out  of  con- 
cealment. 

The  accumulation  contained  a large 
number  of  comparatively  rare  dollars  and 
half-dollars  amounting  to  $75,000,  ac- 
cording to  information  which  there  is  very 
little  reason  to  doubt.  There  were  eight 
hundred  dollars  of  1795,  thirty  of  1798 
with  the  small  eagle,  two  1796  half-dollars 
and  one  of  1797.  In  addition,  there  were 
French,  Spanish,  and  American  pieces 
to  a value  estimated  at  $12,600.  It  will 
be  recalled  that  these  pieces  circulated 
freely  almost  up  to  the  time  of  the  Civil 
War. 

This  hoard  would  have  been  an  ideal 
one  for  numismatic  treatment  because  it 
afforded  evidence  of  the  circulation  within 
a definite  period  of  the  pieces  included. 
Unfortunately,  with  the  exception  of  the 
record  of  the  rare  mint  issues,  no  informa- 
tion regarding  the  remainder  seems  to 
have  been  preserved. 

In  presenting  this  material,  the  effort 
has  been  to  give  a general  idea,  rather 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

44 


COIN 


HOARDS 


than  specific  or  scientific  treatment,  of  this 
phase  of  numismatics.  It  is  hoped  that 
analyses  of  several  finds  to  be  published 
later  will  give  a further  demonstration 
of  the  value  of  hoards  and  treasure  trove. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

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Brunck’s  edition). 

Babelon,  Ernest.  Le  Tresor  d’Auriol,  et  les 
Principales  Trouvailles  de  Monnaies  Grecques 
Primitives  en  Occident.  Traite,  Tome  I,  Part  2, 
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Blanchet,  Adrien.  Recherches  sur  l’ln- 
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Blanchet,  Adrien.  Les  Tresors  de  mon- 
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Blanchet,  Adrien,  & Grueber,  H.  A.  Treas- 
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Evans,  Sir  Arthur  J.  The  Horsemen  of  Ta- 
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Evans,  Sir  John.  The  Coins  of  the  Ancient 
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Gardner,  Percy.  Coins  of  Elis.  Numis- 
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NUMISMATIC  NOTES 


COIN  HOARDS 


Gide,  Charles.  Principles  of  Political  Econ- 
omy (Veditz’  Second  American  ed.  1909,  p.  238). 
Haeberlin,  F.  J.  Aes  Grave.  2 v.  1910. 
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Sequence  of  the  Coins  of  Syracuse,  1874. 

Josephus.  Wars  of  the  Jews,  Book  V, 
Chs.  10  and  13. 

Macdonald,  George.  Coin-Finds  and  how 
to  interpret  them.  (In  Proceedings  of  the  Royal 
Philosophical  Society  of  Glasgow,  v.  34,  1902- 
1903,  p.  282.) 

Mommsen,  Theodore.  Histoire  de  la  Mon- 
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Muller,  C.  L.  Numismatique  d’ Alexandre 
le  Grand.  1855. 

Schlumberger,  G.  L.  Les  Bracteates  d’Al- 
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HOARDS  ARRANGED  AS  TO  SITES 

Anadol,  Rumania,  1895. 

Pridik,  E.  Statures  d’or  trouves  a Anadol 
. . . Bulletin  de  la  Commission  Imperiale 
Archeologique  (Russe),  3.  livr.  pp.  58-92. 
Rivista  Italiana  Numismatica , 1895,  p.  407. 

Auriol,  France,  1867. 

Babelon,  Ernest.  Le  tresor  d’Auriol. 
Traite  des  monnaies  grecques  et  romaines, 
v.  1,  1907.  pt.  2,  pp.  1575-1618. 

Blancard,  Louis.  Le  tresor  d’Auriol. 


AND  MONOGRAPHS 


46 

COIN  HOARDS 

Blanchet,  Adrien.  Traite  des  monnaies 
Gauloises,  pp.  227,  544. 

Chabouillet,  A.  Revue  Numismatique,  1869, 
p.348;  1874,  p.  164. 

Blackmoor,  England,  1873. 

Selborne.  On  a hoard  of  Roman  coins  found 
at  Blackmoor,  Hants.  Numismatic  Chron- 
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Blanchet,  Adrien.  Recherches  sur  la  circu- 
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Canessa,  Cesare.  Le  Tresor  monetaire  de  1 
Boscoreale.  In  Le  Musce,  1909,  p.  259. 
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Ital.  Numis.,  1895,  p.  494. 

Economy,  Pennsylvania,  1878.  The  Econ- 
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Journal,  1881,  p.  47. 

Vourla,  Asia  Minor,  1911. 

Gardner,  Percy.  Note  ori'  the  coinage  of 
the  Ionian  Revolt.  Journal  of  Hellenic 
Studies,  v.  33,  1913,  p.  105. 

Jameson,  Robert.  Trouvaille  de  Vourla, 
monnaies  grecques  des  VIe  et  Ve  siecles. 
In  Revue  Numis.,  1911,  p.  60. 

VlCARELLO,  1852. 

Garrucci,  R.  Le  monete  dell’  Italia  antica, 
p.  4. 

NUMISMATIC  NOTES 

COIN  HOARDS 

47 

-i 

Sambon,  Luigi.  Recherches  sur  les  monnaies 
de  la  presqu’ile  Italique,  pp.  26,  29. 

Southants,  England. 

Hill,  George  Francis.  A hoard  of  Roman 
and  British  coins  from  Southants.  Numis- 
matic Chronicle,  1911,  p.  42. 

Saida,  Syria,  1829,  1852,  1863. 

Rouvier,  Jules.  Revue  des  etudes  grecques, 
1899,  v.  12,  p.  380.  Revue  Numismatique, 
1865,  pp.  3-25.  The  treasure  trove  at 
Sidon,  American  Journal  of  Numismatics, 
v.  4,  p.  76.  (For  same  article,  see  Numis- 
matic Chronicle,  1865,  p.  179.) 

Waddington,  W.  H.  Trouvailles  de  Saida 
et  de  Marmara.  Revue  Numis.,  1865, 
p.  1.  (For  same  article,  see  his  Melanges 
de  Numismatiques,  p.  33.) 

1 

AND  MONOGRAPHS 

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